NewsWrap
for the week ending April 24, 1999
(As broadcast on This Way Out program #578, distributed 4-26-99)
[Compiled & written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to
Graham Underhill, Brian Nunes, Jason Lin, Martin Rice, Rex Wockner,
Chris Ambidge, Greg Gordon & Lucia Chappelle]
Anchored by Cindy Friedman and Leo Garcia
Australian High Court Justice Michael Kirby this week publicly identified
himself as a gay man. He did so in the most dignified manner possible --
without comment to reporters, he simply made an addition to his entry in
"Who's Who in Australia" that identified Johan A. van Vloten as his partner
since 1969. Kirby's "Who's Who" listing is one of the longest in the book
because of the honors he's amassed as one of Australia's most admired legal
minds and as an international human rights activist. He has long been a
vocal supporter of the civil rights of gays and lesbians.
Rodney Croome, co-convenor of the Australian Council for Lesbian and Gay
Rights, called Kirby's coming-out "unprecedented" and enthused at the kind of
role model this "great humanitarian" could be for sexual minority youth.
Australians were otherwise remarkably blasé about learning there is an open
gay on the nation's top court.
Anti-gay New South Wales politician and minister Fred Nile said he'd actually
prefer that gays and lesbians in such positions identify themselves rather
than hide what he called their "vested interests."
No one seemed to mind that Kirby's 30-year relationship dates back 15 years
before New South Wales repealed its sodomy law.
A judge who had already come out as a gay man was being considered for a
place on South Africa's highest court when he publicly identified himself as
having AIDS. Edwin Cameron became South Africa's first openly gay judge when
he came out a few years ago. Like Australia's Kirby, he is one of his
nation's most respected legal thinkers and has a long history as a legal
advocate and organizer for disempowered groups, including gays and lesbians
and people with HIV and AIDS. Cameron disclosed his HIV status to reporters
saying, "I am living with AIDS. The choice to speak is available to me ...
because I have a job position that is secure; because I am surrounded by
loved ones, friends and colleagues who support me; and because I have access
to medical care. For millions of South Africans living with HIV or AIDS,
these conditions do not exist.
"They have no jobs, or their jobs would be at risk if they spoke about their
HIV. They not only lack community support, but face grave personal danger if
they do so.... It is only by creating conditions in which people can speak
out without fear that we can begin to end the silence surrounding South
Africans living with AIDS and HIV." One in eight South Africans have HIV,
with another 1,500 -- particularly teenagers -- joining their ranks each day.
Many are unable to access adequate medical care.
Cameron's announcement was welcomed by AIDS groups, and he's still considered
the leading candidate for South Africa's Constitutional Court.
Namibia's National Assembly this week heard a renewed call for harsh laws
against homosexuality. This time it was Deputy Minister of Home Affairs
Jeremiah Nambinga who said, "There are those of us that believe that
homosexuality is evil, homosexuality is anti-social and should not only be
condemned but should also be legislated against." Calling homosexuality
"animal-like," Nambinga said that society should not encourage such "deviant
behavior." He said, "The anti-homosexual voices should not be suffocated in
our democratic society."
An even more vehement speech against gays and lesbians was given by Home
Affairs Minister Jerry Ekandjo in November. However, at that time Prime
Minister Hage Geingob said that no such law was in the works. Namibia's
constitution prohibits sexual orientation-based discrimination.
In Belarus, Russian Orthodox Church officials have reportedly called for
the execution of gays, sparking a protest in Minsk this week. The civil
rights group Lambda held a demonstration with the slogan, "Gays and lesbians
against fascism."
There was also a demonstration in Jerusalem, as more than 100 people
protested the presentation of the government's Israel Prize to Professor
Avraham Steinberg. He was being honored for his six-volume work on medical
ethics, but demonstrators say that work describes homosexuality as criminally
deviant. This was the second street demonstration against Steinberg's award.
Recipients are selected by the Ministry of Education.
One of nineteen people staging a hunger strike at the University of
Pittsburgh was rushed to a hospital on her 13th day of having nothing but
water and juice. Robin Moll had already lost 20 pounds in the course of the
demonstration by the campus' Equal Rights Alliance. The group has been
seeking a public forum to hold University trustees publicly responsible for
their refusal to extend health insurance benefits to University employees’
domestic partners. When one former worker complained to Pittsburgh's Human
Rights Commission, the University's attorneys claimed the city could not
enforce its law against sexual orientation discrimination, because the state
of Pennsylvania does not protect gay and lesbian civil rights. The trustees
have been criticized in resolutions by all the major campus groups and by the
city.
But it was a demonstration of a happier kind as Phoenix, Arizona kicked off
the U.S. Pride season with their third annual march last week. Some 70
groups participated, from the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to Clergy for
Justice.
Also for the third time, Washington, D.C. area gays and lesbians celebrated
Youth Pride Day, organized by and for young gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and
transgenders. Some 2,000 young people turned out for the six-hour event
designed to increase their visibility, promote awareness of their issues, and
celebrate their dignity and courage.
U.S. state legislatures were busy this week.
The New Hampshire state Senate voted 18 - 6 to repeal a ban against gays and
lesbians becoming adoptive or foster parents. The state House had already
given its approval, and Governor Jeanne Shaheen has promised to sign the
bill. This leaves Florida as the only state with a law against adoptions by
gays and lesbians, and no state has a law against gays and lesbians providing
foster care. However, four states this year have been considering bills
against adoptions or foster care, while Utah and Arkansas state agencies have
created anti-gay policies.
The North Carolina House of Representatives voted down the Matthew Shepard
Memorial Act, which would have added sexual orientation to the state hate
crimes law. The vote was 58 - 48, but 14 legislators didn't vote. A
companion bill is still pending in the state Senate.
The North Carolina House also rejected Orange County's request for permission
to add sexual orientation to its local human rights ordinance. The vote was
67 - 36, but supporters were pleased that the bill had even made it to the
floor for the first time in several tries. Yet the North Carolina state
Senate approved a request from the city of Durham to expand its
anti-discrimination laws, which did not specifically mention sexual
orientation.
A Louisiana bill to protect gays and lesbians from discrimination in the
workplace was approved 3 - 2 by the state Senate Labor and Industrial Affairs
Committee. It will next be heard on the Senate floor. It's passage is the
top legislative target for the Louisiana Electorate of Gays and Lesbians.
A Florida bill to require employers to extend spousal healthcare coverage
to their unmarried workers' domestic partners, has died without a committee
hearing as the legislative session came to a close. It will be reintroduced
in the next session.
But in Canada, Alberta's Social Services Minister Lyle Oberg announced
plans to introduce a bill to allow gays and lesbians to co-adopt their
partners' children. The Conservative provincial government intends to simply
substitute the word "step-parent" for the word "spouse" in the existing Child
Welfare Act. The government also agreed not to fight a pending lawsuit
brought by two lesbian couples in which the non-biological mother seeks to
adopt her partner's child. However, the extremely conservative Alberta
Federation of Women United for Families is asking the court to allow it to
act instead of the government to defend the existing law.
And finally... Openly lesbian high school student Samantha Gellar's script
"Life Versus the Paperback Romance" was a winner in the Charlotte, North
Carolina Young Playwrights Festival, but unlike the other winners, it was not
staged for local students because it contains a lesbian kiss. But now it's
slated for something much bigger and better -- a staging in New York City
with film star Mary Louise Parker in the cast. Thanks to lesbian performance
artist Holly Hughes, Gellar's one-act will be the centerpiece of a program
called "Not Just a Stage: Youth Against Censorship". That program will
include readings from gay Putlitzer-winner Tony Kushner and gay multi-Tony
winner Terrence McNally. And that's not all: Gellar will be getting
coaching from Pulitzer winner Paula Vogel, and meeting writer Dorothy Allison
and singer Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls -- all lesbians Gellar says are her
heroes. Hughes said, "We want to celebrate her. By celebrating her, we want
to also send a message that the kind of homophobia that is standard public
policy across the United States is unacceptable."